Time to go over a new series that I recently found. A Cast of Stones by Patrick W. Carr is the first book in The Staff & The Sword series. It is the story of Errol Stone, a young man who is a drunk that it willing to do just about anything for coin to get another cup of ale. This is actually what gets him in trouble at the beginning of the story. He is asked to deliver a message to a member of the church who has been living in the countryside near his small town. In doing so, he comes to the attention of some assassins who are determined to prevent that message to getting to the priest it was intended for. Errol ends up fleeing towards the capitol with a group of companions, including the priest. He quickly finds out that the message was recalling the priest to help the church figure out what would happen when the king dies as he has no heir. Naturally, Errol is reluctant to get involved but he discovers that he may have no choice in doing so. As the story continues it covers their travels and adventures as they travel towards the capitol.
I found this book while browsing at my local library, one of my favorite things to do. Going in I wasn’t sure what to expect as I had never heard of Patrick W. Carr and neither had any of my family, most of whom are also avid readers. That being said, I did end up enjoying it. The book was very well written and the story of Errol Stone was compelling in many ways. Here was a young man who was literally the lowest of the low, a drunk and an orphan with no family whatsoever. He was tossed into circumstances beyond his control that forced him to confront his problems, such as his drinking and his jealousy, and though he may struggle he also ends up perpetually rising above his problems in the end. Errol was definitely the kind of hero that people can end up liking. There were a few things that were interesting about the world the story is based in as well. The church that is trying to decide the new king showed, in my opinion, many characteristics that vaguely reminded me of the early Catholic Church and Christianity. This is not a bad thing but it is something that I thought I should mention. I do not think this detracts from the quality of the story, it just happened to be something I noticed. Overall, the story was really good and I plan to read the rest of the series if I can find them. I give this book four out five stars.
Despite not having set out to read this before I stumbled upon it I would recommend it to people who are fans of the fantasy genre. As I mentioned before it is well written and has a good storyline so was highly enjoyable. One thing to keep in mind though is that it seems to be a fast read. At least it was for me. Again this is not a bad thing but if you plan to read it, don’t expect for it to take forever to read or for it to be some giant epic like a lot of other fantasy books are. The story may take place over a decent length of time but due to the constant action it feels like it is a much shorter length of time, this is probably part of why the story was such a fast read. I may not seek to add this to my personal collection but I will say that I will probably read it again and that it is probably something most people who read fantasy would enjoy spending a weekend afternoon reading. If anyone is familiar with the book or series feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. I look forward to reading them and will continue to share my thoughts as I continue the series.